Posted by unregistered user at 5/13/08 5:10 p.m.

BelltownCrime decided to quit at the peak of the drama?
So sad...

Posted by unregistered user at 5/13/08 5:57 p.m.

Alex R. Mayer, the publisher of the Belltown Messenger who called the woman "cowardly" in the Belltowner blog, says he's taking partial credit for the videos' removal. "We don't need unsavory crackporn clogging up our YouTubes," he wrote in an e-mail. The Messenger has dubbed the issue the "crack porn scandal" and the woman the "Belltown peeper"
Mr Mayer you do not live Belltown and are unaware of the current situation that is becoming increasingly worse for current residents. To call this woman cowardly and to describe her as the "Belltown peeper" is unjust. I witness everyday what this woman is posting and if her actions can galvanize the City or the Police Deaprtment to take action she is to be commended. As publisher of the Belltown Messenger a publication for the neighborhood, I for one would think anything to improve this neighborhood would be a matter that you should be praising, or perhaps you have your own agenda since you don't live in Belltown.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/13/08 6:23 p.m.

Mister Mayer should go out into these alleys and speak to these drug users. He should council them on how to be good citizens and neighbors. Better yet he should take a few of them into his home and personally guide their recovery efforts.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/13/08 6:25 p.m.

Mister Mayer is simply concerned about the business and developer interests in Belltown. "Belltown peeper"-for looking out her window. Give me a break!

Posted by dickymoe at 5/13/08 6:45 p.m.

Maybe I should set up a camera and tape the drug dealers, users, and whoever keeps pooping in the alley near my place on Capitol Hill.

The only way the police will act on these unsavory cretins is if they are pressured to do so. Kudos to the taper. Shame on the Belltown Messenger's publisher.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/13/08 8:27 p.m.

Oh, please. Those of us who live in Belltown don't actually read the Messenger. It's an uninformative piece of crap. But we're also laughing our butts off now that Mr. Mayer is taking credit for the videos coming down and calling it "crackporn." I'd love to see him come down here, hang out in the alley, and defend these folks who are breaking the law (yes, urinating in public is against the law! So are prostitution, soliciting, and dealing!), to those of us who encounter this behavior while trying to take out the trash. It's easy for him to be okay with the behavior, since he can go home to Seward Park instead of having to hang out here and put up with what we deal with everyday. His idiotic comments just go to show how out of touch he really is with what's going on in Belltown today.

Posted by kylebelltown at 5/13/08 10:05 p.m.

i live down here - it's disgusting - but i love it!
i'm gonna get me a video camera this could be fun
no one read that stupid messenger paper anyway it just gets thrown in our entryway
that dude is obviously bent

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 12:22 a.m.

Hurrah! Alex R. Mayer wins another glorious victory for the noble crackheads and junkies of our city. Now, those of us who have jobs and pay taxes can carry on the glorious Belltown tradition of being mugged for drug money on our walk home from the bus stop.

Posted by abm at 5/14/08 2:08 a.m.

People like Alex R. Mayer are part of the problem, cause they'll always refuse to believe there's a issue.

Posted by Angry Seattlite at 5/14/08 7:26 a.m.

Mr. Mayer is indeed an idiot.

God forbid drug addicts and drug dealers be exposed for who they really are......

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 9:14 a.m.

In another PI story it is reported that after spending over four million over the past four years to provide the public with clean public toilets it is removing them. Why? Because the crackheads are using them for drug deals and selling sex. The next time you are downtown desperately seeking a bathroom thank your local crackhead, the downtown business association who provide them with their bus service, and of course, Mr Mayer.

Posted by CaptRedBeard at 5/14/08 9:18 a.m.

Why take down the vids? Your "point" would be much better if available...

Posted by 1334 at 5/14/08 9:47 a.m.

So next time I take out my trash in my PJ's, will I be filmed an posted on youtube? Good to know we're all being watched, filmed, photographed and analyzed any time we step outside of the house.

Please keep your cameras to yourself, it is ILLEGAL to film people without their consent. Crackhead or not, it's just not right.

Posted by Pedro_the _Lion at 5/14/08 10:50 a.m.

Want to hit Alex R. Mayer where it hurts? Add you name to the list of individuals who will be boycotting the Belltown Messenger AND its advertisers by sending an email to:

boycottbelltownmessenger@live.com

We will be sending our list of boycotters to the companies that advertise in the Belltown Messenger until a formal apology is issued.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 10:57 a.m.

1334

IT is NOT ILLEGAL to film or photograph people in PUBLIC
without their consent. When you go out into public you give up your expectation of privacy.

How many photos do you think you would see in newspapers or videos on TV if it was illegal to film or photograph people in public without their consent?

This person is simply sick and tired of being held hostage in her home by criminals and is using video tape to try to motivate the city's understaffed police force to do something about it.

Posted by thatguy at 5/14/08 11:33 a.m.

unregistered user - yes, it is legal to film in public, but you can't take an audio recording in WA without consent. Just a heads-up to future YouTube peepers.

Posted by olaf at 5/14/08 11:38 a.m.

Exactly. It's not illegal videotape a scene in a public place. You may not point your camera into someone's window, or anywhere where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. A back alley does not count.

The real culprit here is everyone who's ever voted for a politician who espouses drug prohibition. It's just a silly policy that forces the inevitable addicts out of their homes, out of their jobs and into the streets. We need to legalize it, regulate it, treat it. But that doesn't mean we have to put up with it on the street.

(Plus, as long as the gov't is given the right to put up closed-circuit "security" cameras everywhere, citizens have the right to balance this power with their own video cameras.)

Posted by Belltown resident at 5/14/08 11:59 a.m.

That's the whole thing in a nutshell olaf.
Many Belltowners will agree completly with you. Unfortunatly the ones who make the money from the way it is now are in control of the whole thing. We have to get rid of them first before we see and meaningful change. And they're not goin' anywhere any time soon.

Posted by SeattleCrimeBlogger at 5/14/08 12:14 p.m.

"People like Alex R. Mayer are part of the problem, cause they'll always refuse to believe there's a issue."

Exactly. Mayer and folks like Tim Harris of Real Change are so caught up in their hippie delusions that they won't accept the facts: the "humane" methods we've used to tackle homelessness and citywide street-roaming drug addicts have thus far have not worked. And why would they? Excessive social services, protests against clearing out homeless camps...nothing we're doing is giving the city's irresponsible population any incentive to clean up its act.

It's time for the iron fist approach. When will we stop thinking about "the feelings" of those who have demonstrated (through their lack of personal responsibility and complete disrespect for hardworking, taxpaying Seattleites) that they've lost the right to such sympathy?

I absolutely support the Belltown videos, and its a shame that the person who made them came under fire (though she'll always have a home at Seattle Crime Blog if she'd like). We need more people documenting this activity - and shaming those participating in it - if we want to clean up the streets. Only when we make city life so uncomfortable for these people that they can't bear to scum up our city anymore will we finally see an improvement.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 1:21 p.m.

Wait a minute, Alex Mayer lives in Seward Park? Why is he even opening his mouth?

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 5:57 p.m.

I heard a rumor that the videos just needed to go down because they had audio - and they were going back up after being edited?

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 6:55 p.m.

Can someone cite the exact law and code that states that audio recording in a public place is not legal?

I keep reading about this "audio is illegal" statement being thrown around like it's a fact, but I have, as a professional videographer, NEVER heard of before.

I find this very difficult to believe, as expectations of privacy in public, either image or audio, are non-existant.

I think that people may be confusing this with recording audio on a phone conversation without the other party's knowlage, which IS illegal.

I also like the "iron fist" comment someone made, yep, it's time to end the soft experiment of allowing people to do anything they want without responsibilities attached to those rights.

So are there any lawyers out there who can say exactly what this law is that's being violated by recording audio in a public setting? I do not believe it to be so...

Posted by Mister Dot at 5/14/08 8:22 p.m.

SeattlecrimeBlogger-

It is not helpful to mix up the homeless and druggies into a single group. Yes some homeless are homeless due to drug use but the vast majority of them are homeless because they are too poor to afford housing due to various reasons including physical and mental health problems.

Many homeless have jobs. Try to rent an apartment in this city on a minimum wage income--with or without a tainted credit report.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/14/08 11:02 p.m.

I don't care if they are homeless or live in a penthouse. The fact that I can lean out my window and take the photos I did (after yelling at them to leave, I might add) in the middle of the day is a sign that something ain't right. They didn't care that I was snapping photos and they certainly don't care that I posted it to my blog, just as the ones in the video probably don't care they are (were) all over You Tube.

It doesn't just happen in my alley and it doesn't just happen at 3 in the morning. It happens all the time and it's scary.

First step? Shut down the craphole bar at the corner of 3rd and Bell...the one that opens at 6 or 7 in the morning.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/15/08 12:14 a.m.

#128973 -

I found this re: recording audio in Washington Law.

http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states/washington.html

Is a blogger considered a newsperson? If so, I think it is OK, even with audio based on this line -- Moreover, an employee of a news organization engaged in newsgathering is deemed to have the requisite consent to record and divulge the contents of conversations "if the consent is expressly given or if the recording or transmitting device is readily apparent or obvious to the speakers."

Posted by unregistered user at 5/15/08 3:51 p.m.

I think Alex is a coward and did not print factual information. I'm the property manager at Concept One.

Posted by unregistered user at 6/1/08 11:27 a.m.

It's illegal to videotape without consent?

Someone should let all those security cameras in every store, restaurant, mall, office building...and recently at intersections.